Author: Geoff Hudson-Searle

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Can Love Conquer All or is Love a Myth?

Love heart I recently had a relaxed Sunday and decided to watch two movies, both of them well-made, entertaining, and totally romantic, but representing very different viewpoints on the power of love: one realistic and one idealistic. I tend toward the realistic. I found the first movie’s message of “with love, nothing is impossible” incredibly inspiring, while the second movie’s message that “love can’t solve everything” was quite idealistic, but ultimately heartbreaking.

Is there a middle ground?

Can hopeless romantics  soar on the wings of love while still keeping our feet on the ground?

Someone once told me that love conquers all.

Now how true is that statement?

Can love in your life make any difference in your relationships with others?

Let’s look at the definition of love first.

Love is the tenderness that we feel for somebody; the genuine concern about their welfare; and the desire for them to succeed and be happy. Love puts self out of sight, and hopes and desires of the loved subject even at the expense of the lover.

Most misunderstandings which may occur between two people in any relationship are due to selfishness and lack of consideration. The desire to get what one wants notwithstanding the other person’s wishes is often what drives a wedge between friends, acquaintances and colleagues.

The truth is that if you love someone, you are all out to pleasing them, and their happiness is what you are most concerned about. You are more than willing to give up personal preferences to humor them.

There are many situations where love has conquered and can conquer, people have sung about it, people have written about it. This song, Love is the Answer, is a good example of written lyrics:

Broken hearts everywhere

From stepping on love we don’t care

Somebody tell me what we gonna do

Even though it’s plenty to share

People hungry in the streets life just ain’t fair

But you never think about it until it’s you

 

Now I’m gonna say how I feel

And what I wanna say is love is the only thing that’s real

Now I’m gonna tell you what to do

Just believe that love is the only thing we have that’s true

 

Love is the answer

Love is the answer

Can we function without love?

text: love never failsIn Dr. Robert Holden’s latest book, Loveability, he details the root of basically all human problems—the fear of not being loveable. This fear shows up as not being enough (e.g., good enough, educated enough, attractive enough, smart enough, etc.), needing to be perfect, self-sacrificing, outstanding or remarkable, always happy, always melancholic (to get attention), independent, rebellious, a genius, or a peace-maker.

Regardless of how anyone’s fear of being unloveable manifests itself, it’s not our Truth but instead comes from ego. And it’s ego’s job to provide protection and cover for that fear. Sometimes, that protection translates into preemptive strikes that turn into unkindness and even violence toward others.

Let’s consider some scenarios and attempt to step into the shoes of the perpetrator of unkindness. What fear do you think they could be harboring, even if unknowingly?

  • An intimidating colleague/client who seems to have you in the defensive right from the start—Is it at all possible that, if they didn’t strike preemptively to keep you in the defensive, they themselves might be vulnerable to being attacked? It’s irrelevant whether you’d actually attack them; it’s their fear that you might.
  • A non-responsive or inconsistent friend who’s unnervingly hot and cold—Is it at all possible that they worried, if they let you get too close to them, you’d see how flawed and unloveable they are? But they don’t want you to abandon them altogether, so they pour on the charm or become super-helpful when they sense you pulling away.
  • A critical boss/parent who’s impossible to please and who seems incapable of offering words of affirmation or praise—Is it possible that they were never praised, and feared at their core that they’re worthless? Not only was the behavior of encouragement and praise never modeled for them, if they could keep the bar always beyond your reach, you’d never get “there” to see how scared they are that you’ll see how worthless they feel.

Love conquers all things. If the world showed only a little love, just a little more love, we could solve nearly all our problems. No one would have more than the other, because we would all share. No one would despise each other because we would all love each other. No one would insist on his or her own way, because we would all put the other first. No one would war against the other, because we would not want to hurt anyone.

I believe love conquers all things, and no one would really understand it unless they had the opportunity to fall in love and live in love.

So is love the answer, can love conquer all?

 

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How do you sustain long term change in a business?

Time For ChangeInteresting enough, only a quarter of employers achieve long-term gains from change management initiatives, according to a Towers Watson study. The study blames a lack of long-term success on companies’ inability to prepare and train managers to be effective change leaders. It found more than half (55%) said their change management initiatives met initial objectives, but only 25% are able to sustain gains over the long-term.

These initiatives can range from programme or policy changes to business transformation and mergers and acquisitions. “Most companies are having a difficult time keeping the momentum of their change management initiatives going,” said Nicola Cull, a senior change management consultant at Towers Watson.

But for mainstream companies, sustainability remains a disappointment: worthwhile thinking on products and services has not translated into increased sales. Change is so much easier for businesses if it comes from the marketplace and is represented by fundamental shifts in consumer values and needs.

Positioning for these changes requires companies to act today to address areas that are likely to become consumer concerns, to build brands that are more resilient to the changes ahead. For those companies wishing to be in the vanguard there is a clear need to promote behavior change and establish new rules in the marketplace. Brands need to play a bigger role: they are the most powerful tools companies have.

The big questions are how and when, to do it in such a way that you gain the rewards of leadership.

Linking the broader corporate intent with the plans and direction of its brands is one of the biggest challenges for many companies. Short-term commercial focus continues to dominate category and brand decisions. But good brand practice today is about building for the future as well as the present. To endure, brands need agility. Those that are building equities on more sustainable principles now may just be the ones that thrive and dominate in the future.

First, you should constantly explore your company’s capabilities. Which of those capacities will serve it well in the years ahead and which won’t? A careful analysis can help you to identify which of them to retain, which to jettison, and what new capabilities might strengthen your company’s position in the marketplace.

Second, you will want to look for trends that will shape the services, programs, and products you offer to your target market. You can identify key trends by listening carefully to the evolving needs and goals of your customers. When they express a new need or goal, you can then develop new offerings proactively that will fulfil them. You can also identify trends by following the latest news and developments in your target markets.

Third, it is likely that, in the process of creating a sustainable business, your company establishes itself as a leader in a particular market that generates a considerable amount of your customer base and revenues. At the same time, it can be risky to focus too much on one market. What happens if that market collapses for some reason? Just as with financial investing, as you build your business, you will want to diversify your markets, so that if one market slows down, you can pick up the slack with customers from another.

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Can you create a meaningful life out of something you love?

passion-live-with-itIf you want to be successful at your job and move up the company ladder you need to be passionate about your work. You need to be motivated and driven to be the best you can be regardless of your job or your work.

Passion, drive, motivation, the self-driven attitude about your job and your work that can help lead you down the path to success.

Dr. Martin Luther King once said: ‘If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’

I believe our success comes not so much from what we do, but how well we do. It also illustrates that regardless of your job or your position on the company ladder, you can be successful if you have passion for your work, we can all be successful – this is very much down to how much we apply ourselves to life.

Passion is the energy that pushes marathon runners over the finish line, that keeps the artist chiseling, or painting, or typing, day after day and night after night. Passion without a plan, without action, and without hard work and without passion you’ll run out of energy long before your actions yield the desired result.

How much energy would you have tomorrow morning if you knew that the work you were going to do when you got out of bed was going to impact the world in a way that would fuel your inner fire?

Before you can jump into a life full of living out your passions, you need to discover what you’re truly passionate about. It may be even be something that is sitting right in front of you, but you have never been motivated enough to take the risk. To find out, ask yourself some simple questions: What do you enjoy at your current job? What do you hate? How do you find yourself spending your free time?​

Here are some tips for starting your passion journey:

1. Assess Your Current Scenario

2. Visualise Your Goals

3. Make Passion A Priority

4. Hone Your Craft

5. Make Sacrifices

6. Uncover What Makes You Unique

7. Share Your Passion With Anyone And Everyone

8. Find People Who Are Just As Passionate

Passion is an emotion that comes from within you. It is your enthusiasm, your zeal, your drive and your motivation. You don’t want to just feel passionate about your job, you want to put passion into it. You want to apply all of your skills and all of your energy into your work.

Passion does not go unnoticed. People will see how well you do your job and your attitude towards it. They will see even if a task is hard you don’t give in, you apply yourself even more to overcome it. They will notice your drive and your motivation and consider how you would do in another position.

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Creating value from values

the-value-of-valuesWhat does the term ‘creating value from values’ mean?

It is in fact a powerful concept for companies to use. Ultimately, it is a strategy for developing the future market while also strengthening economies, the marketplace, communities, and corporate money.

Recently I wrote a blog post on ‘Do we live in a current economy where we have no customer lifetime value? ‘

Have you ever stopped to consider that the word values contains the word value?

We talk about them as two separate and often very different words. Often strategy, finance, operations, people talk about value in economic value or added value, and human resources, communication, and marketing people talk about values in the terms used across business values and brand values. Yet value sits inside values; a powerful combination of human and financial factors.

Do we treat them separately, discuss them separately, and give them to different departments to deal with separately?

Surely, delivering values needs to be adding wealth creation by adding value. Building brand values, builds brand value. Building emotional values builds economic value. If people believe in what they do, are committed to delivering, and in a way that satisfies their customers, then the community in which they work and as a business will benefit as a whole?

If you believe values create value you need to question the following:

1. What’s important to us as a business?

2. What do we value?

3. What our customers, our staff, and their suppliers say about us?

4. Do we deliver on time, every time?

5. Do we make sure that we follow quality control?

6. Are we passionate about what we do?

7. Do we announce good news stories?

8. What do we dislike about what we do?

The above questions are values that can deliver value when everyone in the organisation is working to live up to their values; in simple terms, the things that are important  to us, the things ‘we’ care about, what makes are job and purpose worthwhile.

It is imperative that the values are developed across the company to be effective and from the board down, otherwise the ‘we’ will be meaningless and risk being treated with disdain by the majority.

Even more important is to turn the values into behaviours that represent value creation.

A shared value creation will involve new and heightened forms of collaboration. While some shared value opportunities are possible for a company to seize on its own, others will benefit from insights, skills, and resources that cut across profit/nonprofit and private/public boundaries. Here, companies will be less successful if they attempt to tackle societal problems on their own, especially those involving cluster development.

Successful collaboration will be data driven, clearly linked to defined outcomes, well connected to the goals of all stakeholders, and tracked with clear metrics.

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With the impact of Social Media, do we actually plan for crisis management?

crisis managementcrisis management
 
noun:  the process by which a business or other organization deals with a sudden emergency situation​

 

 

A crisis is the ultimate unplanned activity and the ultimate test for managers. In a time of crisis, conventional management practices are inadequate and ways of responding usually insufficient.

Fewer circumstances test a company’s reputation or competency as severely as a crisis.

Whether the impact is immediate or sustained over months and years, a crisis affects stakeholders within and outside of a company. Customers cancel orders. Employees raise questions. Directors are questioned. Shareholders get very nervous. Competitors sense opportunity. Governments and regulators come knocking. Interest groups smell blood. Lawyers are not far behind.

As the ultimate unplanned activity, a crisis does not lend itself to conventional “command and control” management practices. In fact, some of the techniques for managing a crisis may fly in the face of conventional notions of planning, testing and execution. Preparation and sound judgment are critical for survival.

One of the most vital skills a company can possess is the ability to determine if, when and at what level of importance a crisis has struck:

  • Is this a crisis, or is it simply a continuing business problem coming to the surface?
  • Is it confined to a local area, or does it have the potential to become a situation of national or international importance?
  • Has someone verified the incident or crisis?
  • What are the legal implications?
  • What level of resources will be required to manage it?
  • So what’s to be done?

Ten rules for crisis management

1. Respect the role of the media.

2. Communicate effectively

3. Take responsibility.

4. Centralise information.

5. Establish a crisis team.

6. Plan for the worst; hope for the best.

7. Communicate with employees.

8. Third parties.

9. Use research to determine responses.

10. Create a website

The Chinese have an expression for crisis: wei ji, which is a combination of two words: danger and opportunity. While no company would willingly submit itself to the dangers inherent in a crisis, the company that weathers a crisis well understands that opportunity can come out of adversity.

A well-managed crisis response, coupled with an effective recovery program, will leave stakeholders with a favourable impression and renewed confidence in the affected company.

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What is a SWOT analysis?

swot-analysisThere has been much discussion recently over what is a SWOT analysis and if there really is a need for some much work internally and externally, particularly in small businesses.

The answer to the question is simple: a SWOT analysis is an imperative as it is a tool used for situation (business or personal) analysis.

SWOT is an acronym which stands for:

  • Strengths: factors that give an edge for the company over its competitors.
  • Weaknesses: factors that can be harmful if used against the firm by its competitors.
  • Opportunities: favorable situations which can bring a competitive advantage.
  • Threats: unfavorable situations which can negatively affect the business.

Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the company and can be directly managed by it, while the opportunities and threats are external and the company can only anticipate and react to them.

When examining the potential for a new business or product, a SWOT analysis can help determine the likely risks and rewards. SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, is an analytical framework that can help your company face its greatest challenges and find its most promising new markets.

The purpose of a SWOT analysis

In a business context, the SWOT analysis enables organisations to identify both internal and external influences. Outside of business, other organizations have found much use in the method’s guiding principles. Community health and development, education, and other groups have used the analysis. SWOT’s primary objective is to help organizations develop a full awareness of all the factors, positive and negative, that may affect strategic planning and decision-making. This goal can be applied to almost any aspect of industry.

Though SWOT is meant to act primarily as an assessment technique, its lengthy record of success makes it an invaluable tool in project management.

When to use SWOT

SWOT is meant to be used during the proposal stage of strategic planning. It acts as a precursor to any sort of company action, which makes it appropriate for the following moments:

  • Exploring avenues for new initiatives
  • Making decisions about execution strategies for a new policy
  • Identifying possible areas for change in a program
  • Refining and redirecting efforts

The SWOT analysis is an excellent tool for organising information, presenting solutions, identifying roadblocks and emphasising opportunities.

Performing a SWOT analysis is a great way to improve business operations and decision-making, it allows you to identify the key areas where your company is performing at a high level, as well as areas that need work.

Some small business owners make the mistake of thinking about these sorts of things informally, but by taking the time to put together a formalised SWOT analysis, you can come up with ways to better capitalise on your company’s strengths and improve or eliminate weaknesses.

Businesses should not consider the SWOT analysis a cure-all however. Like any self-analysis tool, it can be used incorrectly if we allow our ego or insecurities to drive the content. It is imperative to be as honest with yourself [as possible] and be prepared to provide input that truly reflects your competencies, accomplishments and abilities.

By knowing these things about your company you can work toward an action plan of self-improvement or minimally ensure you select jobs, organisations and leaders that are an appropriate fit for you to improve your chances for success.

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Managing fast growth companies

fast growingWherever you are on your journey to market leadership, successful start-ups and companies around the world are experiencing and are having to change to adopt to managing a fast and accelerated growth, growth from a small start-up with a handful of employees into companies with hundreds of employees distributed around the globe.

With such cyclical rapid growth and change, how do companies ensure that they maintain the level of quality, innovation and business sustainability for growth?

As companies scale their teams to keep up with aggressive growth goals, a new challenge arises: companies are increasingly forced to promote technical developers, engineers and other specialist individual contributors into managerial roles in order to manage the influx of additional team members. Someone has to manage these expectations?

This presents what may be the single biggest employee management challenge facing growth companies today, as specialists with none or little management experience or training are now introduced into leadership roles – but without the skills. And usually, with no structured training or guidance provided to them, and no concern for the importance of “soft skills” or best practices to help them quickly become effective in such new manager roles.

As your business grows, investors and other stakeholders will want assurance that you understand the key risks facing your business and that you have these under control.

Here are some points you need to evaluate and assess for growth:

1. Set clear expectations

Different companies stress different types of management duties. A new manager can be responsible for setting priorities that drive toward company goals, giving feedback, helping employees stay motivated, knowing company policy, addressing performance issues, reporting results, and much more. Make it clear what they are responsible for so they can prioritise their time.

2. Train right away, and check in regularly

Make sure to establish a consistent training program right away so that it is an expected part of the role. It may seem like training takes too much time away from other important tasks, but a great training program will save time in the long run. Training courses or workshops should be offered to all new managers, and regular check-ins should happen to ensure managers are getting what they need to grow and improve. It also helps to schedule recurring one month, three month and six month check-ins. New managers do not always know what they do not know, so they need the ongoing dialogue.

3. Pair new managers with seasoned managers

Training only goes so far and the value of mentors cannot be understated. New questions arise constantly for new managers. Make sure your new manager has a dedicated mentor, who can help them navigate the ins and outs of their role. Learning from example is a tried and true practice and even if the mentor is someone from a different department, having that resource is crucial.

4. Know their limits

Great managers know their product and operations, but they aren’t a ‘know-it-all.’ Setting up new managers for success requires knowing their strengths and pain points. Educate your managers on the resources available to them. This will enable new managers to flex the muscle of their good judgment but also know when it may be time to bring someone else into the fold.

5. Culture of management

As we’ve seen in recent headlines, corporate culture can make or break a company. Emphasising the corporate culture as a guidepost for management style will keep problems at bay. Managers should embody a consistent set of values that extend right up the chain of command.

Companies need to put both the processes and technology in place to make it possible for people to become great managers. Startups move incredibly quickly and managers need to do their own work on top of managing others. If building good management skills is not a priority, and tools for building skills are not accessible, people will not necessarily commit. Investing in new manager training is even more important in fast-moving growth companies. Management training may seem like a nice to have, but strong management is one of the essential ingredients for scaling quickly and staying competitive.

Finally, your long-term vision and mission is actually a series of medium-term objectives. When your company grows too fast, it is easy to skip these medium-term objectives because you are seemingly forced to change goals.

Many fast-growth business leaders change their goal too often, never quite completing a plan before starting the next one. So it is important to set a medium-term goal and deliver it.

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How rational are Occupy protests? Are they right?

OccupyWhat began as an open call from Adbusters to show up with a tent grew from dozens to hundreds, to thousands, to tens of thousands spurred on by social media. Far from rejecting the extended sit-in, area businesses plied demonstrators with food and support. Those who could not make it to New York started their own hometown Occupy protests in solidarity, hundreds of them, across the country and around the world.

Occupy Wall Street protests have spread around the world, with a common slogan of “We are the 99%.” But there is a great deal of confusion and misperception about this movement.

In New York City, energy flowed into campaigns against police stop-and-frisk practices and to help victims of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. Occupy experience put organisers in touch with community members normally scornful of ‘weirdos’ but resolved to fight corporate power. One experienced organizer, fresh from Occupy in Missouri, went on to help launch the Take Back St. Louis initiative, subtitled “Reclaiming our Tax Dollars for a Sustainable Future.”

The group gathered more than 22,000 signatures of registered voters, more than enough to put on to an April 2014 ballot a measure to “stop the city from giving tax breaks and other incentives to corporations that mine coal, gas and oil, and any corporation doing $1m of business with a mining company”; to “create a sustainable energy plan in the city that would invest public money in and open up land for renewable energy and sustainability initiatives like weatherisation programmes, urban farms and solar arrays”. In other words, to create sustainable jobs – against the retrograde claim that measures to halt global warming are ‘job-killers’.

As for the executives in corner offices and boardrooms around Wall Street and Canary Wharf, in state houses and Washington, are they relieved that the rabble were swept away? Do they believe that partial financial reforms will insulate them against risings to come? Beyond growing attention to public relations (probably a growth centre for future employment), are they mindful, as they make policy, that those who once awoke to fill the streets and parks may awaken again? Do they suspect, late at night, that youngsters in sleeping bags might turn out to be the modern equivalent of peasants with pitchforks?

Where have all the chanters gone; the gospel-minded Christians and the denouncers of ‘banksters’ and tyrants; the homeless and the indebted and unemployed who filled our urban squares in 2011-12, crying out such slogans as “We are the 99 percent” and “The people want the end of the regime”? Where are the leaderless revolutionaries who turned cities around the world upside down?

The simple answer is: they were dispersed. When the sometimes public parks were swept clear of troublemakers, many dispersed into a scatter of left-wing campaigns. Other activists now escort visitors around bare, fenced-off Zuccotti Park near Wall Street. In London, free bus tours with guides in top hats carry the curious around the City and Canary Wharf (“Make your very own ‘credit default swap’ and find out how to create money out of thin air!”).

Political rationality, if not fear, may well make elites more responsive. Rumblings on the Right are not the only noises emanating from Europe. The sparks that set Occupy on fire fell on inflammable tinder, and this is how history goes: one spark, then another, ignites a whole landscape. The Occupy ‘graduates’ hope that their time will come again. They might turn out to be wrong – until, one day, they’re right.

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Do the Royals have influence over media and film?

At least 39 bills have been subject to Royal approval, with the senior royals using their power to consent or block new laws in areas such as higher education, paternity pay, and child maintenance.

Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, which includes land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, said the findings showed the Royals “are playing an active role in the democratic process”.

‘It shows the royals are playing an active role in the democratic process and we need greater transparency in parliament so we can be fully appraised of whether these powers of influence and veto are really appropriate. At any stage this issue could come up and surprise us and we could find parliament is less powerful than we thought it was.’

The power of veto has been used by Prince Charles on more than 12 government bills since 2005 on issues covering gambling to the Olympics.

So do the Royals have influence over media and film too?

Everyone remembers ‘The King’s Speech’

‘The King’s Speech’, a film about King George VI, sparked swooning adulation since opening at British cinemas. Towards the end, it hits all three fantasies at once: a humble speech therapist is forced to reveal that the king is his patient and friend, after his wife finds Queen Elizabeth at their dining table in a hat, pouring tea.

The film’s success was rooted as an interesting, little-known true story. Many younger Britons have only sketchy notions of George VI, perhaps knowing he reigned during the second world war and fathered the present monarch, Elizabeth II. The film shows a shy prince overcoming a bad stammer with the help of an unorthodox Australian therapist, Lionel Logue (who did exist), in time to ascend the throne after the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. It breathes rare life into his wife, Elizabeth, later revered in the role of Queen Mother, a rather doll-like figure loved for smiling, waving, saying little in public and living to 101.

E!’s new original scripted series, The Royals, is ostensibly based on the lives of the British royal family. But the current Prince and Duchess of Cambridge, better known simply as William and Kate, are not making headlines every weekend for their heavy partying. Actually, they barely make headlines at all, and even the coverage in the UK is pretty subdued, largely limited to basic announcements about places where they made appearances and what Kate Middleton wears. Even Prince Harry, who’s better known for being a “crazy,” rebellious royal, is practically comatose compared to the characters on E!. But is anything from The Royals based on facts or influenced? Well, there are some elements that try to be somewhat close to the lives of the real royals

So what about media advertising, the power of association is widely known. Brands which have no direct link to something positive can benefit from an association to something the consumer loves or respects. The easiest way to do this is by simple repetition. The alliterative mantra ‘Queen and Country’ makes people believe there is something intrinsically patriotic about blindly supporting them, rather than daring to imagine a nation which stand on its own two feet and looks after itself.

To think that the Royals do not make arrangements with the press is I am sure not just a coincidence. The level of access some photographers, even apparently rogue ones, get is staggering. This is one of the richest families in the world with one of the world’s biggest powers protecting them. Being famous celebrities brings a form of power that is easy to underestimate until you see it close up. I will also feel that the Royals also have influence over media and film too.

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Is Cyberbullying really necessary?

CyberBullyingCyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites.

Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumours sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles.

Cell phones and computers themselves are not to blame for cyberbullying. Social media sites can be used for positive activities, like connecting kids with friends and family, helping students with school, and for entertainment. But these tools can also be used to hurt other people. Whether done in person or through technology, the effects of bullying are similar.

Kids who are cyberbullied are more likely to:

i.          Use alcohol and drugs

ii.          Skip school

iii.          Experience in-person bullying

iv.          Be unwilling to attend school

v.          Receive poor grades

vi.          Have lower self-esteem

vii.          Have more health problems

A new film called ‘Unfriended’ which details a group of online chat room friends find themselves haunted by a mysterious, supernatural force using the account of their dead friend.

Everything happens from the perspective of a teenage girl looking at her laptop and jumping from Skype to YouTube to Facebook and so on. It’s a gimmick that works better than it has any right to, and would feel fresher if “Modern Family” hadn’t wrung a lot of comedy out of it earlier this year.

Information regarding the dead girl’s traumatic past is subtly revealed in a chat window, as someone waffles about what she wants to say, typing and retyping the words until she finds a suitably cryptic explanation. The film trailor can be found here.

The protagonists of the film, who are participating in a group video chat on Skype, are haunted around the Web by a presumed-dead girl named Laura Barnes. Laura committed suicide under mysterious circumstances exactly one year before the day “Unfriended” is set, after she was mercilessly cyberbullied over an embarrassing video posted online.

In the UK, a reported 22% of children and young people claim to have been the target of cyberbullying making this one of the most important new areas of behaviour to understand and to equip schools, care-givers, and young people with the ability to respond.

There are organisations like ‘The Cybersmile Foundation’ which is a multi award-winning anti cyberbullying non-profit organisation. Committed to tackling all forms of digital abuse and bullying online, they work to promote diversity and inclusion by building a safer, more positive digital community.

Their mission is a simple one; we believe that everyone should be able to enjoy being part of the new connected online world. Regular and productive use of the Internet has become essential to a healthy social and personal development.

Through education and the promotion of positive digital citizenship organisations like The Cybersmile Foundation can reduce incidents of cyberbullying and through other professional help support victims and their families to regain control of their lives.

Unfortunately, cyberbullying and digital abuse is increasing, holding many back from enjoying the benefits that this connected community can provide. Our current online environment lacks the balance and social rules of engagement that have been cultivated over generations, governing the behavior and relationships in the communities where we live, play and work – the physical world.

Policing, monitoring and internet restrictions can only go so far, although useful additions to any internet safety policy, they are not adequate substitutes for a thorough understanding of cyberbullying and its related issues such as netiquette and emotional intelligence.

But what if that force were just other young, stupid people? Or what if it were a smart but ordinary human hacker, exploiting security holes in always-connected software those people depend on?

Its abundantly clear that disrupting with people and their lives online can have serious psychological consequences… not just in the now but for a very long time!